Slopes, including those of tailings dams, other types of impoundment structures, pipeline slopes, natural slopes and/or engineered slopes, any of which may be composed of soil, sand or clay (e.g. retaining walls, dykes, highway embankments) may present a potential threat of instability or failure. Deterioration of the slope can result from natural causes, such as seismic events, abnormal weather conditions and the like or from a failure of the owner/operator of the slope to recognize decreasing stability. Monitoring systems may be used to predict and even prevent catastrophic failures.
The majority of geotechnical and geological processes develop in an incremental manner. Dam and slope failures are progressive and tend to commence with small precursor events, which may increase in magnitude over time. Accordingly, strain data from the dam or slope may provide engineers with the desired information for identifying small incremental changes in the dam structure.
Brillouin optical methods, such as Brillouin optical time domain analysis and Brillouin optical frequency domain analysis, have been used to measure strain and temperature on surfaces of bridges, and dams. Measurement of strain and temperature has been used to identify deterioration and changes in structural integrity.
There is a general desire to monitor the structural integrity of slopes including impoundment structures and, where possible, provide early warning of possible stability risks and/or possible failure of the slope.
The foregoing examples of the related art and limitations related thereto are intended to be illustrative and not exclusive. Other limitations of the related art will become apparent to those of skill in the art upon a reading of the specification and a study of the drawings.